


Out of the sea, wish I could be part of that world

by meepmorpperaltiago



Series: The Little Mermaid [2]
Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fantasy, Fluff, some dealing with trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-07-09 08:02:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 3,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19884313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meepmorpperaltiago/pseuds/meepmorpperaltiago
Summary: When newly engaged Jake and Amy travel to New York, Amy begins to question wether she belongs on land – but an even greater threat is looming... (a sequel to This Strange New World Above)





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I’m back! this is really more of a very short prologue than a full chapter, but I hope you enjoy it anyway - I’m so excited to come back to this universe – thank you so so much to @jake-and-ames for helping me to develop the plot of this sequel

It’s dark. It’s cold. And he’s swimming. He doesn’t know why, or how he reached this point. 

His mind is entirely filled with the sweet music below.

As he swims, the world becomes darker and darker, until there’s only black, followed by a piercing scream…

-

Jake wakes with a jolt, Amy’s soft hand resting delicately on his shoulder. 

“Are you ok?”, she asks with a concerned and loving gaze. 

“Yeah, yeah I’m ok, never better”, he responds, groggily attempting to return to reality. “Are you?”

Now it was her turn to grow nervous.

“I think so…” she responds shyly, before nodding towards their carefully packed bags, ready to go with them to Brooklyn later that afternoon. “I’m ready to go anyway…”

He rubs her arm comfortingly, his eyes filled with love as his hand brushes over her engagement ring. 

“It’ll be fine – you’ll be fine”, he reassures her. “You’ve already met the squad and they love you and you’re so amazing, I know that my family will love you too – and you’ll love New York and I’m so excited for you to see my old home and my old life…”

She smiles at that, excitement growing in her face.

“I can’t wait”, she says before kissing him softly and then getting out of bed, ready to face a new adventure.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took forever but I finally finished this chapter – hope you enjoy it!!

There's a rush of foam around Amy as she dives in headfirst. And then she's home. She longed to get away from this, but now there's a comfort when she returns to her old world, her tail sweeping in familiar patterns. The only thing missing is Jake by her side. If he could only come here, if only he could be persuaded. She understands that he's still wary of magic after what he went though, but it stings that he doesn't fully trust her. Maybe in time. For now, she swims on and her nerves disappear.

She's so preoccupied she doesn't see someone watching her from the shore.

-

When Jake and Amy first returned to their home, a new stage in their relationship reached and all of their secrets out in the open, they'd started up a game as they walked back down the beach.

"Fact or fiction?" became Jake's favourite way to ask his "discreet" creature girlfriend about the world she came from. Questions in this game included "do you guys really talk like dolphins?" "How many musical numbers actually happen under the sea?" and "please tell me you have a fish best friend?" 

On one particularly long, lazy and hot weekend where there was nothing to do but stretch out across their couch, they'd binged all the mermaid media they could find and Amy had ranked them all out of 10 according to accuracy (Aquamarine was 3 out of ten because "I wish I could grant wishes", Splash was 6/10 because of how much it semi matched up to their real life experiences and the various episodes of H20 Just Add Water they watched got a 4.5 because "the powers are pretty accurate, but why is it always so easy for these guys to get legs?"

Meanwhile, she'd learned more and more about the human world, absorbing everything around her – but she'd never asked much about his old life specifically, content to stay in their perfect bubble, in spite of the mild curiosity creeping in. 

Until one Sunday morning, in between giggly kisses, when she'd finally asked him: "what's Brooklyn like?". In addition to the descriptions of his job and friends and family, at the time she'd struggled to imagine the bustling city he'd described, having never experienced a place like it herself. Eventually they'd started to travel a little more, slowly beginning to explore the world outside of their sleepy seaside town and she'd stated to imagine what New York might look like. 

She could never have imagined what's now in front of her. 

The buildings that loom, the lights that twinkle and flash against the inky black and blue sky, the endless noises coming from every angle, more people than she could've ever imagined existing reading her books back in that cave, all rushing towards who knows where to do knows what. It overwhelms her slightly, but it's intensely thrilling at the same time. There's something empowering about being in a place so large, a feeling like she can do anything. She feels more ready than she's ever felt for this trip. 

An even greater feeling of warmth rushes over her as she looks over to her sleeping fiancée. She hopes he can feel her love for him even in his sleep as she softly brushes his arm. 

-

This is like a game to her. 

Under her ordinance he finds himself turning into her plaything, swimming around the cave in circles, spinning faster and faster and faster as he hears her ice cold laugh. 

Then he comes to a stop, his feet planted on the ground. A few seconds pass and he soon feels seaweed wrapping around his feet and then slowly moving up to his legs, then his stomach and then his shoulders, growing tighter and tighter, binding him as Sophia looks on hungrily, grinning like a wolf about to devour her prey. 

A strangled cry escapes him as the slimy green ribbons slide across his neck and mouth, before covering him completely. 

He wakes up to New York, a taxi cab and Amy looking at him, concern etched across her face. He tells her that it's nothing, just a bad dream, and she seems to relax. He holds onto her as their cab travels further towards Brooklyn, trying to cover how much he's trembling.


	3. Chapter 3

He doesn’t even remember why he’s here anymore. He barely knows who he is, who he was before he came here, his thoughts slurring together into a slopped together mush. All he knows is that wherever he is, he’ll never escape.

The tremors don’t stop. Whenever he closes his eyes, he’s back in that cave, everything within him slowly being drained away. Sometimes he gets away, but the next night he finds himself back on that god forsaken beach, drawn further and further towards the rock and then the next night it’s back to square one.

He can see that Amy has started to notice, is growing increasingly concerned. But he can’t tell her. She’s anxious enough - he loves her too much to give her even more to worry about. So he tries to push it all down, even as he can see barriers slowly starting to form between them every time he brushes her off, every time he backs away, every time the hurt expression that rips his heart in half crosses her face. He just tries to solider on, even as he’s being torn apart inside.

When Amy first came to land, she’d brought a seashell with her. A magic one, that allowed her to hear the ocean whenever she wanted. She held it up to her ear whenever she felt homesick and she always kept it with her, even as she’d become more settled on land. 

Now, fiddles with her engagement ring nervously as Jake rings the doorbell. She tries to quieten the thumping of her heart, but to no avail. And she slowly reaches for the shell in her bag, before leaving it. 

Something inside of her just keeps screaming about the importance of this night. Jake takes her hands as his mom opens the door and she tries to breathe at a normal level. He hasn’t done that in a while and it’s nice. 

“Hi, you must be Amy”, Karen in a friendly voice after greeting Jake first. Amy goes stiff for a second, before attempting to relax. 

Even after a year living on land, Amy is still trying to get used to human houses. Shoes have become the bane of her life and the ones she has on now pinch at her feet as she tries to plaster on her brightest smile. 

They sit down to dinner and it goes well at first, they all get along well and Amy says the right things. But there are moments, dips in the conversation, when they begin to talk about things she doesn’t know about or understand. In these moments, she begins to think of her familiar home and the stark contrast she feels now. There isn’t even any need to use their pre-planned story for how they met, as they don’t ask. Amy finally starts to relax.

Then Roger asks a fatal question. 

“So, where are you from again, Amy?”

She planned for this question. She knows she did. But in the moment, her mind goes blank. She stutters, she can’t speak, she doesn’t know why she can’t say anything, she tries to construct a story, what was her story?

Roger and Karen simply look on confused, especially with the looks her and Jake are sharing, and she can see that her fiancée is also hurriedly trying to think of something to say. 

“Uh, she doesn’t exactly get along with her family, it’s been pretty rough”, Jake finally says. She lets out a breath, but his parents seem to still be perplexed by the strange direction of the conversation. Still, she can’t quite let it go. 

When they drive back to their hotel, Jake tells her how great she was, but it doesn’t really go in. 

She goes into the bathroom, takes the shell out of her bag, puts it to her ear and tries to stop the tears that are pricking up in her eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

Report 38575 – Operation Ocean 

Hi John!  
I thought I’d give you a basic rundown of how the operation has fared so far, and give you a quick reminder of where we're headed, before it all kicks off tomorrow. Our agents are ready near to where the target is staying and I’ve heard that you guys are prepared on your end.   
Best,   
Miranda

14/3/19 – Target first spotted off the coast of Southport Bay   
16/3/19 – Further research and data gathered   
3/4/19 – First images taken and gathered   
4/5/19 – Target arrives in New York City – target tracked further   
5/5/19 – Capture day


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it’s been so long! Hope you enjoy this new chapter – we’re almost near the end...

Jake is out of bed again. She wishes he would talk to her when he wakes up with a pale face and heavy breathing, like he so often does now. She knows that it’s only making the gap between them wider, but he won’t accept any help from her.

Now, they’re sat with his friends, the ones she met before and they’re laughing about something and she feels even more alone. He notices at least, tries to take her hand and she accepts it. But it’s only the smallest of comforts. 

Eventually, she walks out and he follows close behind. 

-

“Ames, what’s going on”, he says, running into the street to stand beside her. 

“It’s stupid, it’s nothing, I just need some air”, she says, in a tone that betrays her true emotions.

There’s a pause and when he breaks it he speaks softly and sadly. 

“Why won’t you just talk to me?”, he says.

She doesn’t turn around to look at him.

“I could say the same thing about you” she responds. It comes out harsher than she wanted, but at this point she doesn’t care. 

“What?”

“Do you know how much it’s hurt when you never tell me what’s wrong with you? And I’ve been feeling out of everything enough as it is, which is also something you don’t seem to have noticed. And do you know how much it hurts when I’m making so much effort to fit into your world, you won’t even remotely engage with mine? You won’t even come and see my family and don’t say it wouldn’t be possible, you know I could easily do magi–“

“I’m scared ok?”, he suddenly yells over her. “Almost every night, I’ve been waking up with literal nightmares about Seraphina and I know you’d never do anything to hurt me, but that fear is still there...”

Her expression grows soft now and she reaches to touch his arm.

“I’m sorry... but why didn’t you just tell me what was going on?” 

“I didn’t want you to worry, I knew you were already nervous about this trip and I thought that if you knew I wasn’t ok then it’d make you feel way worse...” he says sheepishly. 

She responds with a simple hug and they both relax, like they’re finally breathing for the first time in months. 

“So should we head back in?”, he says, taking hold of her arm when they finally break apart. 

“Sure”, she says, smiling softly. 

But then she feels a vice like grip around her arm, suddenly yanking her away. Jake tries to fight the burly man, but he’s swiftly knocked out. Amy only has a second to turn around before she’s knocked out too. 

When she wakes up, feeling that she has her tail, the darkness that surrounds her is pitch black. She tries to stretch out, but every move through the water ends with her arms hitting cold, hard, glass.


	6. Chapter 6

The first thing he feels is cold hard stone on the back of his head. The others are gently shaking him awake and foggy memories start to appear. He starts to scream Amy’s name. 

The others look on in confusion as he cries. When they ask where she is, he can’t answer. He doesn’t know. All he keeps saying is that someone took her. They take him to the hospital, then back to his apartment. After a while, he lets himself fall asleep, wrapped in the blankets the others have placed on him. 

When he wakes up, they’re all sat there, waiting for answers. He doesn’t want to say anything, can’t talk about the insanity that has been his life for the past year. He just explains, whilst still shaking, that someone came out of nowhere and took Amy, took the love of his life, just as they’d started to heal. 

“I think we should all go back to the precinct”, Rosa says after a moment of silence, gesturing to the rest of the squad. “But someone should stay behind with Jake”

Jake wakes up at that. He stands and starts to speak fiercely. 

“No, I’m coming with you, I have to- “

“Jake-“

“I know what you’re gonna say, but I can’t just stay here while she’s- “

“Guys!” Charles yells over them in a strangely stunned voice. He’s looking at something on his phone. 

They all run over to see what it is. Jake is the last to run over and when he sees what they’re all looking at, his blood runs cold. 

The caption reads: “Real mermaid discovered in New York!”

The video shows Amy, in full on mermaid form, sitting at the bottom of a tank. The look on her face splits Jake’s heart in two. 

They all look to him for an explanation. 

“I think we should all sit down”, he says. They all agree. 

“So…”

“So… you’re engaged to a fish?”, Rosa says bluntly. 

“She’s not technically a fish… It’s a long story… she rescued me from drowning and made a deal with a siren to turn human, so that if we fell in love she’d get to stay human”

“Wait, sirens are real too?”, Charles questions, both gripped and confused by the story already. 

“Yeah and this one put a love spell on me to mess with Amy, but then that broke the terms of their deal-“ 

“So you’ve fallen in love with a mermaid and been seduced by a siren, you’ve experienced like all the mythical sea creature things?” 

“Really Charles, that’s what you’ve taken from this?” 

Charles looks down sheepishly, nodding a little. 

“Sorry… it’s just that the whole siren experience was super traumatizing, I’m still getting nightmares about it… anyway,”, Jake continues after a slightly sad moment of silence, “that broke the terms of their deal, so Amy was able to come on land and we’ve been together ever since.”

The squad take a few seconds to absorb the insanity of what Jake has just told them. Then, Terry speaks, whilst looking at the video again.

“And now she’s been kidnapped by… Marine Life Aquariums”

“Yep, if that’s the name connected to the video – so who’s up for a rescue mission?”


	7. Chapter 7

A man with a puffed up chest speaks to the gathered crowd in a booming voice, imitating a ring master as he speaks to the gathered crowd.

As he speaks, with a flourish he pulls blue silk from the large tank behind him.

“Marine Life Aquariums is proud to present the worlds’ first mermaid!”

The creature inside is thin, pale and sad and looks out to all of them with wide eyes, scanning every face as if she’s searching for something. Her sadness only grows when she doesn’t find whatever she’s looking for.

It’s not until they reach the aquarium that they realise they don’t actually have a plan. But Jake knows he couldn’t have waited another minute to reach her.

He suggests that they go and see wherever Amy is, to learn the layout of the place so they’ll know what they’re dealing with, but underneath it all they understand that he has to see her, has to know that she’s ok.

He feels tears pricking in his eyes when they enter the biggest room in the aquarium, when they see her. Her face lights up when she spots them, but she looks so broken. He comes up and puts his hand and his head up against the glass. She matches his action and he whispers softly. 

“We’ll get you out of here Ames. I promise. I love you”

“Hey! Get away from the glass!” a man yells, grabbing him and pulling him away roughly. In a moment of foolishness he tries to run back towards her and the man pulls him back even harder this time, grabbing him and shoving him towards the exit. 

Suddenly, with a smash of glass water floods the room, sending all the gawking tourists running. 

Amy squeals as she hits the floor and Jake runs to her, holding on tightly as the rest of the squad watch on, open mouthed. As her tail turns to legs, she gets up and they all run.

“What the hell happened?” he asks incredulously as they rush through the seemingly endless maze of exhibits. 

“Being locked up like that was so awful, it was like I shut myself off...” she explains, “but when I saw that he was hurting you, that was all that mattered to me - suddenly I was so angry I smashed the glass”

“Well, it’s a good thing that you did, I honestly had no plan”, he responds as they come out into the street. 

“So...”, Amy says awkwardly, turning to the rest of the squad.

Rosa responds calmly, “It’s ok, Jake explained everything”

“Oh thank god”, Amy says, breathing a sigh of relief. “Do you guys just want to go back to Shaw’s?”

“Yeah sure, that sounds great”, Terry says and they all agree.

In spite of how isolated she’s been feeling, walking with her new friends with Jake’s hand in hers, Amy has never been happier.

And looking into Jake’s eyes, which had become so haunted lately, she can tell he’s feeling the same way.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much to @397bartonstreet for all your help with this last chapter. I can’t believe this story is really done! I’ve loved writing it so much and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it 💜💜💜💜 I may return to this world someday, but for now this is goodbye

“Are you ready?”, she says, taking his hands. 

“Yes, he says, rubbing her hands to reassure her. “I can’t wait to see where you come from and meet your family” 

“Ok”, she responds, before checking a final time that he’s ok with having magic put on him again and then waving her hand. 

When they go into the water, she takes his hand as they swim towards her old home, as their legs both turn to tails. 

She worries that this may be too much for him, but she looks over and he’s smiling happily at all the things she missed, the fish, the coral, the bubbles. 

They race each other to her family’s caves and they laugh properly and fully for the first time in a long time and neither of them want the warmth they feel in that moment to ever end. 

-

Her hair is filled with seashells and the delicate lace of her dress resembles waves if you look closely enough. 

He walks towards her on the other side of the beach and they beam at each other. As his former boss speaks, they exchange vows. Jake speaks first, tears already forming in his eyes before he’s even said a word.

“Ames, when I first moved here, I felt like I was leaving my heart behind. But I didn’t realise that all my heart needed was out there in the ocean. You’re my best friend, I love you so, so much and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you”

She speaks next, taking his hands. 

“Jake, in my old life, I used to dream about what my human life would be like. But I never imagined that I could find something like this. Someone I love as much as you. Sometimes, living between two worlds is tough, but I know that as long as I’m with you I’m already home”

They slide silver bands onto each other’s fingers, a symbol of the promises they’re making and then a rope of pearls and shells is wrapped around them, a tradition in mermaid weddings. 

They kiss and in that moment the world becomes perfect. 

In spite of everything they’ve had to go through to get here, there’s nowhere they’d rather be. 

Jake knows he’ll be ok. And Amy knows that, surrounded by her friends and family from both worlds, that she’s truly where she belongs.


End file.
